Latest Mineta Transportation Institute study reveals surge in assaults on public transit workers
The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) is calling for improved safety measures to improve worker safety after it charted a surge in assaults on public transport workers across North America.
This call for safety comes after a new study, A National-Level Hazard: Growing Assaults on Transit Staff, showed that assaults on public transit workers worldwide have risen sharply in recent years. The study reports that 86% of all attacks since 2003 have taken place between 2015 and 2024.
Between 2021 and 2024, the most recent four years of data, the U.S. and Canada are at the center of this trend, accounting for 41% of all global attacks on transit employees. The study revealed that bus drivers are among the most vulnerable.
Study authors Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R. Butterworth report that the U.S. alone accounts for more than one-third of the global total and say that reducing the risk to transit employees is an immediate critical issue that needs focus.
“The transit employees who were attacked were just trying to do their jobs, but their unique exposure as public-facing workers operating alone, easily accessible to their passengers and often being the ‘lone enforcer’ of transit regulations, puts them at higher risk,” Butterworth said.
The report explains that:
- Violence primarily affects public-facing transit workers, especially bus drivers, onboard staff and isolated employees.
- Bus drivers account for 63% of attack victims in the U.S. and Canada.
- Many incidents stem from routine passenger interactions (e.g., fare enforcement).
- Over 85% of attacks are committed by lone individuals rather than groups—typically adult males between ages 19–30, using no or improvised weapons, according to the study.
- There were few links to organized crime or extremism.
“We urge transit agencies, unions and policymakers to collaborate and take a serious, systematic look at the data so that specific risks can be identified in each system,” Jenkins said. “We also urge transit agencies to adjust or find procedures that improve worker safety and reduce the risk to transit employees.”